Wheelchairs and luggage?

[davidgillon]

Seeing as I'm booked to fly out to Greece, spend a week sailing and then four days in Athens, and I'm travelling with the chair, I need to work out the logistics of luggage when wheeling. I'm aiming to travel fairly light, but bulk does add up regardless. I might just manage with the current bag for the chair-back, I'll have to do a trial load and see, but it will be tight and that doesn't have a lock on it, any thoughts from more experienced wheelies greatly appreciated.

Comments

[kaberett]

I normally do carry-on only hung from the back of the chair. The other advantage of a chair without armrests is of course that you can balance something wider than you across your lap and still keep moving but it sounds rather as though that won't be possible with yours...

[davidgillon]

Arm rests are long since removed (immediately I got the chair in fact), so across the lap is technically possible, pushing with something in my lap might be more ambitious. I might be better off with a rucksack slung from me and hanging down the back of the chair. I've got one I can check with, though it's a while since I used it and I may end up investing in something better if it turns out to be practical.

[kaberett]

I almost always have a bag hung off my handles, as perhaps you are aware! Alters the tippiness of the chair a little, but I imagine yours is so stable that it won't make a great deal of difference. (My dance chair is very deliberately set up such that the moment I put anything on the back the only thing that stops it tipping over backwards is me sitting over the front wheels; I appreciate this is not for everyone!)

[davidgillon]

The stability of my chair is seriously pissing me off! I have to push so hard to get it to wheelie the risk of ejecting out the back is ridiculously high. When we replace this one I'm definitely going for something closer to yours stability-wise.

BTW, I love the idea of a dance chair!

[sunflowerinrain]

I have an assortment of bags which can be hung over the back. A backpack is good because it already has loop-handles in the right place, but you might want to hang it back-to-front for security.

I've been thinking about an under-chair bag as well, but it would be a nuisance if the wheelchair needs to be folded.

[davidgillon]

I have used a small backpack on my chair (though the one I have isn't great as it's meant for a laptop and has far too much internal padding for general luggage use), but I'm actully thinking about a full size frame rucksack, which is probably long enough it'd need to be hung from me rather than the chair, I have one I can try out, but I may look into a better one (and I think there are a couple of shops in town that should have a reasonable selection)

Underchair bags are unfortunately out as the monster is the under seat cross-braced type.